The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality will be conducting repairs to one of the two main supply pipelines which cross Maitlands River at the Maitlands River pipe bridge.

This comes after the larger pipe, a Socomon 1125mm Diameter, experienced a failure of a joint seal which caused a visible leak on the upstream side of the pipe bridge.

According to a statement released by the municipality the Soccoman pipe will be isolated for repairs on Tuesday 19 May 2015. The pipe will be refilled with water on Wednesday and Thursday, 20 and 21 May 2015.

The water supply system will thus be fully operational with the adequate amount of pressure by Friday, 22 May 2015 the municipality says.

The repairs to the pipe joint could not be carried out immediately until the controls at a pumpstation located on the pipeline was repaired first. This was completed last week.

Affected areas

“The Churchill pipeline system supplies 30% of the water to Nelson Mandela Bay. As a result of these repairs, supply to the Bay will not be affected if we all use water sparingly during this period,” says municipal spokesperson Roland Williams.

“However Blue Horizon Bay, Seaview and Kini Bay may experience temporary interruptions in supply over the period of the repair programme,” he explains

Williams reassures residents that they need not panic, as there is sufficient supply if everyone uses water sparingly over this period.

“Once again it must be stated that all citizens must please assist in using water sparingly as over use could cause interruptions in other supply areas if reservoirs were to run dry,” concludes Williams.